Lid holding means for can openers



June 1965 w. R. HICKS ETAL LID IIOLDING MEANS FOR CAN OPENERS Filed Nov. 29, 1962 United States Patent 3,153,995 Lil) HGLDKNG MEANS FUR CAN UPENERS William R. Hiclrs, Spencerport, and Harry Kronson, 31:, Kendall, N.Y., assignors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed Nov. 29, 1962, Ser. No. 241,013 1 Claim. (Cl. 30-64) This invention relates to can openers and has particular reference to magnetic lid holding means for can openers.

It is a well known practice in the can opener art to provide magnetic means for retaining the lid of a can once it has been severed during a can opening operation. This permits the user to withdraw an opened can from the can opening device without any possibility of the lid falling into the opened can. The problems of fishing a lid out of an opened can without displacing the contents thereof is thereby eliminated. Such prior lid holding devices, however, have presented certain ditiiculties. For instance, the lid holding device must be free to move a limited amount in the vertical direction to conform to changes in the angularity of a can lid during the opening process. In addition, it is desirable to permit easy removal of the lid holding device from the can opener for ease of cleaning and maintenance. As a result of these requirements, prior art lid holding devices have been rather complicated as well as expensive to manufacture.

Accordingly, it is an object of our invention to provide an improved magnetic lid holding means for a can opener which permits limited movement of the lid-retaining magnet in a vertical direction.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a magnetic lid-holding device which may be easily removed from a can opener for ease of cleaning and maintenance.

It is still a further object of our invention to provide a magnetic lid-holding device which is simple in form and inexpensive to manufacture.

Briefly stated, in accordance with one form of our invention, we provide a lid-holding device comprised of a magnet and a support bracket therefor. The support bracket is formed from a single sheet metal blank which has edges thereof turned down on three sides at right angles so as to provide a receptacle for receiving the magnet. Two opposed bent edges have extending portions which serve as support arms. These arms terminate in hooked portions and have additional stop portions which cooperate to floatingly secure the lid-holding device to the wall of a can opener.

Other objects and features of our invention will become apparent upon examination of the following specification taken together with the annexed drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a can opener utilizing a lid-holding device of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing a portion of the front wall of the can opener of FIG. 1 with the lid-holding device secured thereto.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the lid-holding device.

FIG. 4 is a front View of the lid-holding device.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a top view of the sheet metal blank used to make the lid-holding device while the blank is still in planar form.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a can opener of the electric variety is shown. The can opener has a housing, indicated generally as 1, which serves to enclose the operative elements of the can opener. Housing 1 includes a slotted side wall 2 through which a control handle 3 extends. Housing 1 also includes a front wall 4 which has an aperture 5 therein through which projects a cutting blade 6. It will be understood that suitable clamping means (not shown) are also provided to secure a can in the proper position adjacent cutting blade 6 during an opening operation.

On the front wall 4 of housing 1 in the vicinity of cutting blade 6, there is provided a lid-holding device 7 for the purpose of holding a can lid once it has been severed from a can by cutter blade 6. Such a lid is shown in FIG. 1 as numeral 8.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-6, the lid-holding device may be seen in greater detail. The lid-holding device is comprised of a magnet 9 and a bracket 10 for supporting the magnet. Bracket It), as shown clearly in FIG. 3, contains a receptacle portion 11 for receiving magnet 9 and a pair of support arms 12 which extend from receptacle portion 11.

In order to secure the bracket to the can opener, support arms 12 include hooked portions 13 and stop portions 14. Horizontally spaced vertical slots 15 on the front wall 4 of the can opener accommodate hook portions 13 which may be inserted therethrough when the lid-holding device is disposed in the vertical plane such as is shown in FIG. 2. As the lid-holding device is pivoted into the horizontal plane (dotted lines of FIG. 2) hooked portion 13 abuts the rear face of front Wall 4 while stop portion 14 abuts the front face of front wall 4, thus, limiting downward movement of the lid-holding device. When the lidholding device is in the horizontal plane it is held securely in place, since the ends of hooks 13 now extend above slots 15 and engage the rear surface of front wall 4 adjacent slots 15. The lid-holding device'ltl, however, may be pivoted upward with ease. It thus has freedom of motion for accommodating angular irregularities of a can lid during an opening operation. Moreover, when pivoted into the vertical plane it may be withdrawn completely from the can opener.

In order to more fully understand the ease of fabrication of the device, reference may be had to FIG. 6 which shows a sheet metal blank as it would appear after a stamping process. The blank includes a central portion 16 which has side portions 17 and end portion 18. Extending from side portions 17 are arms 12 which include hook ends 13 and stop portions 14.

Following the stamping process, sides 17 and end 18 are bent at right angles to central portion 1d along the dotted lines aa, bb and cc. This results in a three-sided receptacle that receives magnet 9, which may be cemented therein or held by other well known means such as bent tabs (not shown).

Following the bending of side 17 and end 1%, arms 12 are bent outwardly along the dotted lines dd. Return bends are provided along the dotted lines ee near the hooks of arm 12 so as to permit the hook and stop portions to lie in parallel planes. The final shape of the arms is most clearly shown in FIG. 3.

Thus, it may be seen that the device is simple and twopiece in nature including only a magnet and a one-piece bracket, the latter being stamped in a single operation. Subsequent bending of the blank completes the fabrication process.

In addition, the lid-holding device may be easily inserted into the wall of a can opening device and secured thereto. While so secured, the device is limited in downward movement to the horizontal plane but may float upwardly to adjust for any angular irregularities of the lid of a can. Finally, it may be easily removed for facilitating cleaning of the can opener and of the magnet by merely pivoting the device to the vertical position.

While specific embodiments of this invention have been shown and described, it is not desired that the invention be limited to the particular construction shown and described, and it is intended by the appended claim to cover all modifications within the spirit and scope of this invention.

What we claim is:

A can opener comprising:

(a) a housing,

(b) said housing having a Wall with a pair of hori zontally-spaced vertical slots therein,

a lid-holding device comprising: (aa) a magnet, (bb) a sheet metal bracket for supporting said magnet in a position adjacent the lid of a can, (cc) said bracket being formed from a single blank, three edges of said blank being disposed at right angles to form fianges for engaging the sides of said magnet,

(dd) two of said edges being opposite each other and including support arms extending therefrom,

(ee) said arms including hooked end portions for reception in said slots and engagement with said wall adjacent said slots,

(ff) said arms further including stop portions adjaeent said hooked end portions for engagement References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,339,491 5/20 Axberg 248223 X 2,897,589 8/59 Bodle 304 2,979,815 4/61, Rhodes et al 30-4 3,002,274 10/61 Jepson et al. 304 3,014,597 12/61 McWherter 248-223 X WELLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner.

EDWARD V. BENT-1AM, MILTON S. MEHR,

Examiners. 

